In Sickness and Health
by Copper's Mama
Summary: Sam/Andy fic. Andy's got a bad cold, Sam comes over to make her feel better. Please read and review!


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_A Sam/Andy fic. _

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_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Rookie Blue. Wish I did, though. Also, any brand names that you see are not mine, either. Just borrowing them for this story. _

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_A/N: Alright, since my cold has only worsened over the last two days, I've decided to incorporate my snotty, miserable-ness into a Sam/Andy fic, lol. _

_Side-note: I might be entering into a novel-writing challenge at my local library this November. I'm not really sure what the prize would be if I won, but the exposure would be good. Only thing is, the novel I want to enter is only half-finished, and I doubt I'll be able to finish it in time. What do you guys think? _

_I hope you guys like this one, I know I'll love writing it. _

_As always, please read and review, I live for feedback! _

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She honked her nose into the thousandth tissue that day, feeling her ears strain in response, and her eyes begin to water. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, dropping the tissue onto the bed beside her, before picking up another one. "I hate being thick!" she groaned, then rolled her eyes at her inability to pronounce the 's'.

Her nose was red, and slightly burning at the end. She was sure that it must look bulbous, for the sheer amount of snot that was up there. It was horrible. Andy McNally absolutely despised being sick. Especially when she was sick enough to have to stay home.

She was sneezing every few minutes, and contagious on top of that. She'd been given the day off, and had started her medication so that she would no longer be contagious tomorrow.

After blowing her nose again, Andy finally got fed up. She tore a tissue in half, squished it around until it was compact enough, and shoved each side up into her nostrils. The tips of the tissue tickled her mouth, but it was better than the slowly dripping mucus that she had to deal with otherwise.

A half-hour later, Andy was still sitting on her bed, nearly dying of boredom. She had no interest in watching daytime television, and her sparse movie collection had been overused enough as it was. If she wasn't feeling so bogged down, she would go rent something. She thought about selecting a movie on pay-per-view, but she didn't want to risk falling asleep and wasting her money.

She was entertaining the notion of seeing if a video store would deliver, when there was a knock at her front door.

Andy glanced out her bedroom, assuming that it was Traci. She'd said that she would come by and bring some Benalyn Cold and Sinus stuff, so Andy had given her a key to her apartment. "Come in!" she called out, sinking into her mattress.

After a minute, the door opened, and she heard footsteps making their way through her apartment.

"I'm back here," Andy called out to her friend, hating the nasal, weak sound of her voice.

The footsteps grew closer, and just when Andy was wondering why Traci hadn't spoken yet, someone else poked their head into her room.

"Hey, McNally, I brought you some ..." Sam's voice trailed off, taking in the sight of her.

Andy's eyes widened. "What are you doing here?" she asked, nearly distraught.

Sam raised his eyebrows, trying very hard not to snicker. She was tucked under her covers, propped up with several pillows. There were tissues strewn all about her on the bed, an open can of Vicks on the bedside table - which she had clearly smothered on her chest. Her hair was thrown into a messy bun on top of her head, and there were tissues sticking out of her nose. She made quite the sight. "Um ... Traci had a family emergency. She asked me to bring you soup."

Andy continued to gape at him, actively aware of the fact that she was wearing a tank top and mini-shorts, without a bra on. It wasn't as though she'd been expecting to entertain a man, let alone Sam. "Tho, you jutht barge in here?" Andy asked, slurring her s's. The tickling on her lip reminded her that there were still tissues jammed up her nose. She felt her cheeks redden in embarrassment, pulling them out and grabbing another one to blow her nose.

Sam bit his lip to keep from smiling. "She gave me a key. And you _did_ say 'come in'," he reminded her.

"Yeah, I thought you were her, Tham!" She rolled her eyes, forcing her tongue against her teeth. "Ssssam!" she forced out, groaning at herself.

"You sound healthy," he commented with a chuckle, taking the soup out of the bag he carried. He set it beside the bed, pulling out a box of Benalyn as well. "She also said you wanted this," he told her, giving her the box.

Andy accepted it warily, sliding open the box and pushing a couple tablets out, popping them into her mouth.

Sam began gathering up some of the tissues from her bed and tossing them into the garbage.

"What are you doing?" Andy wondered, remaining under the covers.

"Tidying up. These tissues are gonna swallow you up soon." he commented.

Andy shrugged. "I can take care of it."

Sam nodded. "Sure. You should eat that soup while it's still hot." He continued cleaning up the bits of the room that were out of sorts, and when he was done came beside her on the bed.

"Make yourself at home, why don't you," Andy commented, feeling a little self-conscious.

Sam shrugged. "I'm on my lunch break."

"You know, I'm probably still contagious," Andy reminded him, working hard to pronounce her s's. "You get too close, you'll probably get sick."

Sam shrugged again. "I've got a pretty good immune system."

Ever since she had ended things with Luke, the two of them had been in an odd sort of holding pattern. Neither moving forward nor pulling back. Could her getting sick have finally given him the push he needed to make a move? She wasn't sure, but the idea was nice.

Sam settled down against the mattress, plucking the remote off of the bed between their legs. When she leaned forward to taste some of the soup, he casually draped his arm on the pillow behind her, pointedly looking away from her and at the TV. He scrolled through the channels, finally settling on some old movie that neither of them had even heard of.

Andy chose not to comment on the fact that he'd placed his arm around her, and instead continued to eat the soup. It was pretty good, but her stomach was queasy, so she only ate a little bit of it. She replaced the lid on the container, setting it on her beside table to reheat later.

She tried to concentrate on the movie, but she was already drowsy from exhaustion, and the cold medication only added to that. After a few minutes of silence, she drifted asleep.

...

Andy awoke to the feeling of a moving body beneath her. Her eyelids blinked open, seeing a mass of clothing blocking her gaze. She grumbled out a little moan, pushing herself up. She was greeted with the sight of Sam smiling down at her.

"Hey, sleepy-head."

Andy blinked, realizing that she'd fallen asleep on him. "Oh ... sorry."

Sam shook his head. "It's fine. But, I gotta get back to the division."

Andy nodded her head. "Right ... um, thanks for coming over."

Sam slid off of the bed once she was fully back on her side, retrieving the shoes that he'd kicked off while she was sleeping. "No problem."

Andy brought a hand up to her head, pushing her hair out of her face. Some of it had come out of the bun, and she was almost afraid to look in the mirror. "Ugh, I must look terrible," she commented, sniffling.

Sam tilted his head, giving her a looked mixed with seriousness and disbelief. "Oh, come on. You know you're gorgeous, even with tissues shoved up your nose."

Andy rolled her eyes at the reference to her attempt at blocking up her dripping nose, but paused when she realized that he'd called her gorgeous. "Um ... thanks."

Sam's smile wavered a bit, as though he too had realized what he'd said, but he pushed right by it. "I'll come by after my shift, make sure you haven't drowned in a pile of Kleenex."

"Haha," she commented, pulling another tissue out to blow her nose again.

"See ya, McNally," he said, before making his way out of the room.

Andy waved at him with one hand, blowing her nose with the other. She glanced at her clock, realizing that he would probably be late getting back to his shift. He'd stayed a lot longer than he should have. _Was it because I fell asleep? I don't think the movie was really THAT good ..._ She thought about how he'd let her fall asleep against him, how he'd put his arm around her ... how he'd called her gorgeous. Maybe things would get moving between them ... she certainly wouldn't hate that. And he had, after all, now seen her at her worst. _And he's not running away,_ Andy thought with a smile.

She leaned back against the mattress, planning on getting a couple more hours of sleep. She wanted to be refreshed when Sam came back over that night.

The smile never fell from her face as she drifted into unconsciousness, suddenly thankful that she'd gotten sick. Things had worked out pretty good, actually.

...

"You made me thick," Sam commented, pulling yet another tissue out of his large box of Kleenex beside his couch.

It had been two days since he'd come over to his place, enough for the cold that she'd given him to really set in. Andy still had the occasional sniffle, but the worst of it was behind her, and she'd repaid his favor of bringing her soup with a mixture of his own, inviting herself over to his apartment.

"Hey, I warned you," she told him, sitting sideways on the couch beside him.

He glared at her, but couldn't hold the look for long. She _was_ right. A loud honk, and then he tossed yet another tissue into the garbage basket beside his coffee table. He chuckled a little at his swish shot.

Andy rolled her eyes, pushing herself up from the couch to go heat up his soup. A hand on her waist stopped her movements.

"Thankth ... thanksss for coming over," Sam told her, his eyes portraying honest emotion.

Andy smiled, and after a moment she leaned forward, kissing the top of his forehead. "No problem."

Sam closed his eyes at the feeling of her lips on his skin, eager to be healthy so she could kiss more than just the top of his head. He watched her go into his kitchen to heat up the soup, grabbing another tissue from the box.

He was certainly grateful that this cold had brought them together, but he was more than ready for it to be over so they could get to the good stuff. _Honk!_ His ears popped in protest, causing him to groan and flop his head back against the couch.

...

_The end. _

_Well, what did you guys think? Like it, hate it? _

_I think we all wish that we had a Sam-shaped person to come over and make us feel better when we're sick. That would certainly be nice for me right now. _

_Reviews are appreciated, flame if you must, but constructive criticism is much more useful. _

_Until next time ...! _


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